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 Richmans' Trade and Taxes Blog

US Trade Deficit with China Hits Another Record
Howard Richman, 12/11/2012

At the same time that President Obama continues to pose as the champion of the American manufacturing worker, he continues to give away their jobs to China.

According to statistics released by the Census Bureau this morning, the U.S. merchandise trade deficit with China hit another record in October, climbing to $311.6 billion over the 12 months ending in October as shown in the graph below:

Meanwhile, the overall U.S. trade deficit with the world also rose in October. Both exports and imports fell,  but exports fell by $6.8 billion while imports only fell by $4.9 billion. The total monthly trade deficit for October (both goods and services) was a seasonally-adjusted $42.2 billion which would extrapolate to $506.4 billion per year, if multiplied by 12.

While the United States has a manufacturing trade deficit with China, it also has a service trade surplus with China. But individual country service trade balance is not reported on a monthly basis. In 2011, that surplus with China was $15.3 billion. Assuming the same level in 2012, our total trade deficit with China for the last 12 months was about $295 billion, 58% of our total trade deficit.

China keeps out American exports through a wide variety of barriers. For example, in December 2011 they raised their already high tariffs on American automobile exports, forcing Cadillac and Jeep to build their new factories in China in order to have continuing access to the Chinese automobile market.